Punjab Kings clinched a low scoring thriller against Sunrisers Hyderabad whose woeful run in the tournament continued. 126 wasn't the biggest of target but the Sunrisers batsman made a mess of a small total before Holder's cameo gave the 2016 champions a glimmer of hope. This is the lowest score successfully defended in the IPL at Sharjah. The win gives Punjab Kings breathing space as they keep their playoff hopes alive. Pandey and Jadhav did get starts but none of them looked like taking the game away from the opposition. Last year as well Punjab defended a similar target against SRH in similar conditions. Not to take anything away from KL Rahul's boys, they were exceptional with the ball.
Earlier, Jason Holder starred with the ball as SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) restricted Punjab Kings (PBKS) to 125/7 in their allotted twenty overs. Holder scalped three wickets and conceded just 19 runs in four overs. Rashid Khan, Abdul Samad, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Sandeep Sharma returned with one wicket each. For PBKS, Aiden Markram and KL Rahul played innings of 27 and 21 respectively. Put in to bat first, PBKS had a horror start as they lost both their openers inside the first powerplay. Bowling his first over, Jason Holder removed KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal in the fifth over of the innings. Punjab skipper went back after scoring 21 off 21 balls while Mayank managed just 5.After the first six over, Punjab's score read 29/2. Aiden Markram and Chris Gayle tried to regain the momentum by stabilising the innings of the team in red. With a couple of boundary-less over, PBKS moved to 55/2 after 10 overs. Rashid Khan proved lethal with his spin, as he gave SRH a crucial breakthrough in the 11th over of the match. The Afghan player dismissed Gayle for 14 after trapping him in front of wickets for lbw.
